“People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. When you figure out which it is, you will know exactly what to do.”

– Michelle Ventor

Who We Are

Our Mission

The Brinson Foundation is a privately funded philanthropic organization that provides an opportunity to focus our family’s common interests in encouraging personal initiative, advancing individual freedoms & liberties and positively contributing to society in the areas of education and scientific research.

Our Vision

We envision a society that cares for all of its members and endeavors to enhance individual self-worth and dignity. We also envision a world where every individual is a valued and productive member of society, where all people are committed to improving their lives and the quality of their environments.

Staff

Our Mission

The Brinson Foundation is a privately funded philanthropic organization that provides an opportunity to focus our family’s common interests in encouraging personal initiative, advancing individual freedoms and liberties and positively contributing to society in the areas of education and scientific research.

Our Vision

We envision a society that cares for all of its members and endeavors to enhance individual self worth and dignity. We also envision a world where all people are valued and productive members of society, where everyone is committed to improving their life and the quality of their environment.

Our Beliefs

There are no higher values than integrity, truth and honesty.

We seek to form strong, collegial and collaborative relationships with the people we serve.

Individuals, families and communities are best positioned to define and solve their own problems.

Programs that rely on the incentives of the free enterprise system provide significant potential for long-term success and sustainability and have many advantages over government programs.

We encourage innovative and experimental ideas that target preventative measures rather than the treatment of existing symptoms.

Education is essential to the human mind and spirit and provides the basis for people to reach their full potential.

Advances in science and technology can be harnessed to materially improve the human condition.

Successful programs need to be communicated to broader audiences to maximize the potential impact on society.

Our Priorities

Education – We believe education provides people with the opportunity to expand their talents and capabilities. Through our grantmaking, we hope to inspire them to reach their full potential both as individuals and as contributing citizens of a greater community. We are especially interested in programs that make quality education accessible to those who are personally committed.

Our education grants fall into seven focus areas:

Financial Literacy – programs that provide middle and high school students and adults with basic financial and investment skills to help them become financially self-sufficient.

Health Care Career Development – programs that spark interest among high school and college students in health care-related career paths or enhance the skills of health care professionals to equip individuals to have careers that offer opportunities for economic advancement while also positively impacting societal health.

High School, College and Career Success – programs that provide motivated students and young adults of limited means with the academic support, personal skills and financial resources needed to reach their full potential in school and careers.

Liberty, Citizenship and Free Enterprise – programs that educate and promote the principles of liberty, citizenship and free enterprise to elementary through graduate school students and adults.

Literacy – programs that develop the literacy skills of children, birth through elementary school age, improve the pedagogy of teachers and ensure support for this learning among parents so that young children become functionally literate and are prepared for success in their future education and in life.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) – programs that provide STEM education to pre-school through graduate school students or professional development for teachers, promote STEM careers or deliver engaging STEM content to the general public.

Student Health – programs that foster the physical health of pre-school through high school students to help them stay enrolled and be productive in school.

Scientific Research – We are interested in programs on the cutting edge of research in specific areas of interest to our Directors that are underfunded or not yet eligible for funding by governmental programs. These programs are typically sponsored by top research institutions, which provide quality assurance oversight and accountability that may not be possible in a less structured environment. Further, the programs often involve pre-doctoral and post-doctoral scientists who are beginning their research careers. In addition to promoting the work of young researchers, we are particularly interested in programs that encourage them to remain engaged in research in their field of interest.

Our Scientific Research grants are made in the following focus areas:

Physical Sciences

Astrophysics – the study of the behavior, physical properties and dynamic processes of celestial objects and related phenomena.

Cosmology – the study of the origin, structure and space-time relationships of the Universe.

Evolutionary Developmental Biology – a field of biology which synthesizes embryology, molecular and population genetics, comparative morphology, paleontology and molecular evolution to understand the evolution of biodiversity at a mechanistic level.

Geophysics – the study of the physical processes and phenomena occurring in and on the Earth and in its vicinity.

Medical Research

We partner with leading medical research institutions to fund promising studies conducted by junior investigators that have the potential to cultivate new, innovative clinical interventions for chronic conditions as well as highly treatable conditions which negatively impact the productivity of large segments of the population.

In all cases, we focus our medical research funding in areas that improve the quality of life as distinct from solely extending life.

The Foundation does not accept grantseeker inquiries in medical research.